Johnson & Johnson to Pay $158 Million to Settle Lawsuit on Improper Marketing

The drug company Johnson and Johnson, according to the New York Times, last week said that it would pay $158 million to settle a 2004 Texas lawsuit that accused the company of improperly marketing Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug, to state residents on the Medicaid health program for the poor, including children. The lawsuit accuses the company of pushing Risperdal as “appropriate and safe to treat a broad range of symptoms in populations and disease states for which it had no F.D.A.-approved indication, including in the child and adolescent population.”